There is a story circulating, based on what looks like an official statement, that the TV singing competition The X Factor has been scouting people out and inviting them to audition. Here is the NMEs take on the story. It’s interesting that people want the show to be organic and authentic in its discovery of ‘talent’. So this story, like the one on the use of auto-tune on the show a few years ago, challenges the shows veneer of reality. It hints towards the level of engineering and filtering that structure the show and are are necessary to the format. It seems that the problem people are having with this story is that it challenges the shows ‘undiscovered talent’ or ‘finding a diamond in the rough’ motifs. In this case it appears that half of the 12 remaining finalists were asked to audition, with some having had previous experience in the music business. This is probably just part of the attention to detail in the construction of the show, it’s themes and the personal biographies that it uses as its narrative archs.